Many barbell support apparatuses that protect a weight lifting exerciser from injury while performing such weight lifting exercises as the bench press and the barbell squat are known. Examples include those disclosed in the following U.S. Patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,216,959 to A. Niles, 8-12-80, disclosed a safety chain system having two separate chain devices which suspend at a pre-selected height the two ends of a weight lifting barbell;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,249,726 to R. Faust, 2-10-81, disclosed a rack structure designed with safety arms that may be hydraulically or electrically activated by the exerciser to raise a weight lifting barbell from his chest while performing the bench press exercise;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,662 to W. Podolak, 3-3-81, disclosed an overhead hoist-type mechanism having a motor driven clutch design that is user-activated to lift a weight lifting barbell from a user's chest while bench pressing, including a triangulated, non-passive-type, single cable suspension system that has a static support ring (the support ring 60 represents the central overhead support point for the triangulated design);
U.S. Pat. No. 4,324,398 to R. Hole, 4-13-82, disclosed a steel frame structure with pulley guided safety cables that extend from an adjustable safety locking bar to the weight lifting barbell; and,
U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,956 to S. Marlo, 9-18-84, disclosed a weight lifting aid for bench press exercising that has a foot-activated, counterbalancing weight system which includes a triangulated, multi-cable suspension design with a static support ring (the support ring 15 represents the central overhead support point).
However, none of the above or any barbell support apparatus forweight lifting exercising known to present is believed to offer the advantages of this invention.